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I would hope they would make some adjustments, and not having to worry as much about the scrambling QB, so the LBs can drop back deeper into the zones should help.

I will have to take a look at the splits. It is crazy how 2-3 plays can change an entire game good or bad.

Especially with two elite wide ups going against our preseason #5-7 dbs (JJ/Gordon/Stevenson/Smith out). Hopefully Stevenson somehow is back and healthy.

This. FWIW, Flacco led the Browns to defeat the Packers on week three of this year. Flacco was traded to Cincy 5 days and made the starter before he met the Packers again but wasn't able to pull of the win (losing 18-27). I'd make the case the Cincy's offense is better than Baltimore's - position wise. It appears the Bengals and Ravens may have swapped out on who has the worse defense. Right now Cincinnati is ranked 32nd overall, 31st against the pass and 30th against the run.

Red Zone efficiency is probably the entire difference between first few weeks and last few weeks in all honesty.

Caleb is part of the problem but there has also been plenty of good too. He has to be better and more confident throwing guys open and getting through his progresssions but he has had his positives too and has massively reduced his sack rate. The whole offense continues to false start (literally and figuratively). Too many mistakes between penalties, drops and poor execution too - in particular in red zone. Even mediocre red zone execution and we are having a different story. I expect to see real progress these next few weeks. Let’s see Bears dig deep and grow vs wilt!!!

Especially bad when he’s in front of his family and friends in Maryland. He definitely needs to be coached hard and I think we have the right guy to do it. For Baltimore that was a playoff game yesterday. We didn’t come prepared.

Week 8 Tankathon Standings. 1. NO 1-7 2. NYJ 1-7 3. TEN 1-7 ------------ 4. CLE 2-6 5. MIA 2-6 6. NYG 2-6 7. BAL 2-5 8. LVR 2-5 9. ARZ 2-5 10. CIN 3-5 17. CHI 4-3 The Bears are trending to draft between 10-18 right now, with 14 as the median.

To start a career, thru their first 24 games, there are 3 QBs in NFL history with over 5K Passing Yards, 25 Passing TDs, and 10 or fewer INTs, Caleb Williams, CJ Stroud, and Dak Prescott. If you add 500 Rushing Yards, Caleb is the only one left. For how bad Caleb was sacked last year, he is now 10th for sack rate (worst being 1st) from 2024-2025. Drake Maye has a higher sack rate, and he is 0.5 from Daniels, who is 11th. That is a promising stat, because he was taking too many sacks last year.

This should be fun. Caleb Williams needs to grow the F up. He showed me too many plays yesterday that showed prophetic to his draft critics. For starters, his head clock is killing him. His feet get happy too soon and inaccuracy follows. I don't see him as the guy that's willing to take the extra millisecond and take a hit. If he is willing, the flight mechanism is overriding his intent. You could clearly see that, especially the sidearm throw to DJ in the end zone. He saw it and nuked the throw in a rush. Cooler QB's loft it out there. Situational awareness needs to be a huge trait of a QB. Caleb showed me several times that he doesn't get it. He cost us time by not running out of bounds, when he clearly could have.(You too DJ) He got a grounding penalty instead of throwing the deep out that was coming open on the same side of the field. As the QB, he knew the route Rome was running. If it wasn't there, throw high. There was another dump off to the left that could have been called grounding. What he missed was Loveland running free toward that area with room to make a huge play. There was also a third and nine play with a five yard pass to a receiver that was bracketed. The worst of them all was the three second stare down to Rome that the DB was waiting to pick. He didn't look for anyone else that play. It was very high school. At some point, Caleb's wild spirit has to be broken to the point that he's willing to run the offense without the things that are costing him to play poorly. Yesterday's game was a pure indicator of the value of the turnovers we were getting. I'm sure the Bengals have taken note. For the life of me, I don't understand why he always has to do that jump throw to the sideline when he's evading pressure to the right. It simply doesn't work as often as he would like. Just run the damn ball and pick up a few yards. Do I believe Caleb was the most talented player in his class? Absolutely! Maye was my first choice and it had nothing to do with talent. Maye had been competing and learning how to overcome adversity since he was in diapers. There wasn't a person in his family that he didn't have to struggle to beat. I wanted the competitor over the talent. They look too be wired differently. When Maye talks, it's quickly and sure. When Caleb talks it's umm umm. I never liked that trait. The good ones never stammer. I'll wait to see if someone knows one. Trust me, the traits I speak of aren't always a sign and it's simply what I like. And I'm wrong as much as anyone. Growing pains are what they are. Sometimes you see growth and sometimes they just hurt. Caleb has time, but needs to realize what he's doing and what it means on every play. Caleb is our guy and I like him very much. Hopefully, he grows quickly so we can see what he's meant to be.

Should TB consider a QB change? Mayfield only had 152 Passing Yards, 0 TD, and 3 sacks against the lowly Saints. In the game before that, he had 228 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, and 4.6 Y/A against DET. It is actually quite ironic how close Caleb's numbers are to Baker's (outside of Mayfield's crazy number of attempts) against these two teams: Baker - 43-74, 58.1%, 380 yds, 5.1 Y/A, 1 TD, 1 INT, 7 sacks Caleb - 34-56, 60.7%, 379 yds, 6.8 Y/A, 2 TD, 2 INT, 5 sacks Williams - 13th Passing Yards Per Game, 20th in QB Rating, 9th in Y/A, 21st in Sacks

I think Huntley proved just how bad our secondary is now, with the injuries taking out all of our top CBs. Flacco cannot be dismissed. With Chase and Higgins against our CBs, if they play as badly as they did against Baltimore, Flacco could easily give us another loss.

The 2023 Browns Flacco took care of the Bears. With little pass rush and 2-3rd string DBs, Chase and Higgens could have a huge game.

The Bears open up as 1.5 favorites on the road against the Flacco-led Bengals. The Bengals just lost 39-38 to the lowly Jets, which followed allowing 31, 27, 37, 28, 48, and 27 since Week 2. So no team has scored less than 27 against the Bengals since the Browns in Week 1. So this has to be the breakout game for Williams. Anything less than 27 pts on offense and a solid passing game overall, will be a failure. I am losing faith in the defense that allowed 30 to Huntley, but think the defense rebounds enough for a Bears win 31-20.

Here is a graph of Caleb's Comp%, QB Rating, and QBR. I will add PFF Grades once this week's grades are out. To me, this looks like he is regressing across the board. With 7 games, you can take out the middle game, which was right before the bye, and assess in 2x 3-game increments. In his first 3 games, he had 7 TD-1 INT, with 3 games at or above average. Then in his last 3, he has 1 TD, 2 INTs and 2 of the 3 lowest graded weeks this season.

Some of what I saw from him yesterday was concerning and some not so. It appeared that about midway through the game he was doing 2 pt reads and only looking at half the field. I’d imagine that could be by design and that Johnson wants him to learn how to read the field more thoroughly or it’s just that Williams isn’t able to process it all. Later in the game, during garbage time, they put him into a two minute offense mode and he seemed to do better. Although then he was trying to push it to other receivers like Zaccheus and I believe Duverney and still missing. I’m always a fan of faster offense so maybe this is what they do more of?

I listened to a podcast where they discussed Caleb being the wrong QB for the BJ system. They talk about Caleb being a creator and not fitting a system type QB. They used McVay going after Stafford, and trading Goff to Detroit. Goff is highly successful in the system. Is that the situation here? I think Caleb is a talented QB that can play in any system but I dont see him getting better at this point of the season. During the game the announcers showed a stat where Caleb holds the ball the longest of any starting QBs in the league 3.07 seconds. How long will it take him to do the little things like being accurate, making the right decisions when under pressure. A simple thing like running out of bounds late in the game, instead he tried to gain more yds. Throwing in to double coverage to his favorite WR (Rome) instead of a different player open over the middle. I think his problems are mental and am waiting for the moment he becomes the #1 pick QB I expect him to be.

This is not the same old Bear organization. The McCaskey's turned the future over to Warren, Poles and now BJ. Now if they are the wrong group its on them not George. We are 4-3 with the arrow pointing up. We have a A+ coach and a potential top 5 QB, not sure why 7 games into the season, its the same old doom and gloom. IMO I think we have enough talent to have a winning record this year. Is it perfect, nope but before I jump in the hole of disparity, Im going to let this season play out. When the Bears win, Im in a happy mood for days, when they lose, I have the 3 day flu. This is the only sports team I am emotionally invested in. With its history, not sure why I choose this team but to late to change it now. I have several friends that when KC won Mahomes first SB, they became Chief fans. I wish I could do that.

if you look at the position in the draft in the first and second round AND the number of picks we have had it is even worse. these were the once in a decade slots in the draft that you HAVE to hit on. if you don't get elite players you have to at least get above average starters out of this. poles has failed in every aspect of drafting talent. williams was a no brainer although that draft class it seems you couldn't miss if you wanted to. hopefully we didn't pick the wrong one again. the FA list is dismal. tj moore is the best out of the entire lot of them and he came in the trade from carolina. byard the safety is a good player also. sweat although good is in my opinion a #2 DE. so who else? another comment on our draft... the top picks in rounds 1 & 2 were for basically the same position, receivers. we already had an abundance of receivers. how many do you need on the field? they all can't be the target especially when they are on the sidelines. so how can that possibly be a good choice for us as draft picks?

I definitely see promise of a top QB in Caleb. He isnt just talented - he has shown many throws in rhythm - he just needs to be more consistent. i think he will get there, and a lot of us will be very happy when he does.

Bad drafting. When you can't draft, you overpay guys like Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odangbo in free agency, or trade for Montez Sweat and Chase Claypool and freak up your cap space for the eventual next GM who comes in to take over.

I think Warren will finally give the Bears a Stadium we can be proud of, instead of the poorly designed rehab of Soldier Field, which has been an embarrassment compared to other big-market venues. Ryan Poles. (see below) I think we all agree Ben Johnson is our "Franchise" HC—the key to our eventual return to the Super Bowl. Player evaluations can be debated. I'm concerned that Caleb isn't the "Franchise" QB we need to take us to the Super Bowl. I see him as more of a "Jay Cutler" than a "Tom Brady." A QB that will amaze you with his athleticism and fill you with hope, but in the end leave you with just another disappointing year. Maybe it is just my decades of skepticism, born of the disappointments all Bear Fans have experienced. We have some damn good players. We also have some that are overpaid and need to be replaced. By the end of the season, after Johnson completes his first season as HC, we should have a much better grasp of our roster's strengths and weaknesses. This is where we have to decide if Poles is the "Franchise" GM we need to take us to the Super Bowl. Can he get rid of the players who aren't performing and replace them with quality starters? He's made some outstanding moves. He has also failed miserably with some of his others, especially the Draft. Again, we will have a clearer picture by the end of the season. The question is: If we feel we need to move on from Poles, is it even possible with the extension he just received? If ownership took the financial loss of releasing Poles, I believe Cunningham would be an ideal replacement. He has years of experience with this team and has a working relationship with Johnson. It would be "passing the torch" vs. hiring an outsider who has to learn which foods to avoid in the Bears cafeteria buffet line.

I wish I knew what the issue with the Bears was. The curse seems to follow gms, coaches, QBs from regime to regime. Drafts never go how we envision and FA seems like a lot of hope our signees rebound to previous form or become a late blossoming star. Are we only one good draft away? Look at this last draft class and who is making us better now? This team is basically what it will be a year from now besides Loveland taking form, so the guys we watch now need improve on playing mistake free since that has been the biggest success killer. Id like to see Caleb get more accustomed to this offense over these next 4 games and become a general. Watching Manning and Rodgers command the offense and know what to do every snap is what we envisioned with him. He can get there, but needs to trust his team and not just Rome and his running sideline throw.

We are not going to be a good team until we clean up the penalties. We have no control over bad ref calls and they are real. Every time we had some consistency, a penalty killed a drive, took us out of the red zone and threw off any continuity we had obtained. Gave them life and allowed them to move down the field. We had two DL go down early in the game so that affected how our defense performed later in the game. We were fairly effective in the run game but let Caleb do to much. With all the potential he has, he makes to many mistakes. Saying all this, we were in the game at the end. We have to play to perfect to win these type of games. Caleb is suppose to be the unicorn that raises the players around him and he keeps coming up short.

Yes, lots, play to play, but not with enough consistency. He is showing flashes all over the place, but we need to keep the chains moving. Hes not inept, hes just not consistent enough yet.